Easter, Conference and Coming home

What a glorious Easter Sunday we have had.  We were  fortunate enough to watch all the sessions of our General Conference and feel so spiritually uplifted.   We were invited to Mike and Donna’s for their family Easter get together between conference sessions.  They have 4 children, 3 of the families were together today.  We feel so much a part of their family and had such a wonderful Easter Dinner and then watched as the grandchildren and a little nephew hunted Easter Eggs.  We had to leave before the “golden” eggs were chosen, so we don’t know who got the big egg.  We will find out tomorrow.  We have not been successful in re-activating the less- actives in the family, but love and cherish each of them.

 

After the last session of conference, we went with the Young Missionaries to teach the First Lesson with Jimmie, Barbara and JP.  JP’s non-member girlfriend was there, so it was a very good introduction to the gospel for her.  The Elders did a great job.  We are trying this approach to teach the First Lesson with each member family, so that they see just how the lesson goes and will feel more comfortable in inviting their friends to come to their home for a lesson.  

After that, we took the Missionaries over to Kay’s house.  Kay’s grandson, Tucker, who is almost 7 has won a couple of roping contests and one of our new missionaries is just learning to rope.  Tucker was so excited to be able to show the missionary how to do it.  It was really to dark, but the connection was made.  Kay’s daughter is not a member and I think she would benefit from hearing the Gospel. 

Thursday night, we took chocolate chip cookies to Ro and her family.  Ro is a 14 year old black girl who we have grown to love, but she is a pickle.  Some times she visits with us when we call on her family, but most of the time she stays closed up in her room.

Last year for Christmas I gave her a set of pens and a composition book as her favorites subject is creative writing.

I hadn’t heard anything about it until about two weeks ago.  She came out while we were there and said she had been cleaning out her back pack and found the book.  She said that the date on it indicates that you only have 4 weeks left on your mission.  She was sad that there was so little time and I was thrilled that she felt sad.   But when we went again the next time she stayed in her room.  Thursday when we were there, she came out, I mean really came out.  We chatted for a few minutes and I asked what was going on at school  She said, spring break.  I asked if she had any plans and she said yes, I going with you!  I was dumbfounded.  She said she wants me to teach her to play the piano!  What is she thinking....piano in a week????  I plan to spend some time at the church on the piano and then maybe lunch and maybe we can make cookies together and maybe teach her about Indexing.  That will pretty much take us to Friday.  Then we will be down to 4 days. 

She said the sweetest thing about the cookies.  She said they are the best she has ever had.  She said, “It is because they are made with LOVE”

We have So many things to get down in this last week.   We have been over to Magnolia and said our goodbyes to them.  Theresa would like to get her Patriarchal Blessing before we go and several people we need to see one more time in their home.  The Branch is having a going away party on Saturday, Miss Ruby is taking us to dinner at Gaines Ridge (antebellum home) on Friday.  We will leave Camden on Tuesday morning and go to Birmingham.  We have been asked by our Mission President to attend the Transfer Meeting and the Dinner and Testimony meeting Wednesday.   We leave Alabama Thursday morning.  We will drive to Hannibal Missouri for the night, then on to Nauvoo Illinois for Friday night; then head West about 1:00 on Saturday.  We will be home either Monday or Tuesday.  We will know better after we leave Nauvoo.  We will keep you posted.

The Hawks will be moving out of our home on the 15^th and finish with cleaning  on the 16th or 17^th.  The Only real glitch is that we won’t be reporting our mission right away.  Due to  Ward Conference, Fast Meeting, Mothers Day and another homecoming and a farwell, we don’t know when we will be reporting.....but that’s okay.  We will be coming home and are very excited to be back with our real family and our friends.  This will be the last letter, as we will be packing later this week.  Thank you for sharing our Mission with us.  We have LOVED IT!  Love Grandma and Grandpa

Busy Two Weeks

As you remember, we have had a very busy two weeks:  4 days at the Birmingham Temple with the Young Elders and Sisters and then another day, Saturday with Theresa and lots of visits to branch members.  It has been a wonderful two weeks!!!

Theresa  was baptized in October of 2013 and she loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is trying to obedient in all things.  She completed her 4 generation group sheet when we started doing Family History with her.  She was glad when she got the four done and said, “I don’t want to do any more of that. “  Then she went to the Temple in January and now she can’t add names fast enough.  We feel like she will be able to continue working for her family after we have come home.  It was a great day yesterday with her.

Last night, we got a surprise call from our Mission President, President Hanks.  He said he was on his way to Camden and would be attending our church meetings with us.  We had hoped he would come down sometime, but we are so far away from Mission Headquarters, that we never thought it would happen. 

Finding a decent place to stay in Camden is not really possible, but he stayed anyway.  It is interesting how the Lord works to help us with our lives.  For example, Tuesday Miss Ruby on neighbor, landlord and dear friend, took us to lunch at the Montgomery Stockyard Grill.  (We had taken her there for a Christmas Thank You and she loved it).  She wanted us to share that experience again.  On the way home, she wanted to stop at a grocery store. ( A Good one) They had some beautiful produce and I picked up a big bundle of Asparagus.  I had purchased extra Biscuits last week and had a lovely roast.  We always have the Missionaries for dinner on Sunday and President McIntosh comes every Fast Sunday.  I had also prepared a dessert for the Women’s Session of General Conference.  I had been helped to be prepared for having such a wonderful guest in our home.  The dinner was wonderful and the company and conversation warm and friendly.  Mostly about the history of the church in Camden. 

Fast and Testimony meeting was very difficult today.  It was our last one.  I remember when we first got here and was a little lonely, I thought, only 18 more to go and now, we have had the last one.  We so love the people we have met here.  The members in our little Branch have become like family to us and it will be hard to leave.  However, you never lose friends, they will always be special in our hearts. 

Next Sunday will be our last letter home, as we start that next week, packing and shipping.  Again, we thank you all for your support in all the ways you have shown it.  Letter, texts, pictures Face book  and even a few calls.  We can’t tell you how much it has meant to us and how much it has kept us going.  We love each of you and are looking forward to seeing you.  Love Grandma and Grandpa

Wonderful Week!

FIRST OF ALL:  JP got his mission call.  He is called to serve in Brazil.  There have only been two other missionaries from Camden since it started as a Branch in the late 1890’s .  This is HUGE!  JP is the only Senior at Wilcox Academy who is a member of the church.  He is the Student Body President and so loved and respected by the students and teachers and the whole community. 

Wonderful week!  Monday and Tuesday night we had wonderful, meaningful meetings with two of our Branch families.  The kind of evening that is why we came on our mission.  To help someone(s) to draw closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

District meeting in Selma on Wednesday.  These young Elders are so well prepared and so faithful.  They are obedient and diligent in serving the people of Alabama and serving the Lord.   We truly love these young men and are so grateful we have the opportunity to serve with them. We do miss the Sisters too.

Thursday and Friday we were with half of the mission at the Birmingham Temple.  Again, young people 18 to 22, clean in thought and deed and worthy to obtain this blessing.  It is sort of camera heaven after we dome out. Usually there are about 10 phones and cameras taking picture after picture; the next 10 come out and new photographers, same main picture.  President and Sister Hanks right in the middle and Elder and Sister Hepworth just to the side. Then it is photo of companions,  more companions, and just the joy of being together.   We just love these young people. 

Saturday, we prepared for our Saturday night activity.  President Memory from Montgomery came to Camden to speak.  “On the road to the Passover”  He is one of the most dynamic speakers we have ever heard.  Since it was Saturday night, he set the chapel up with a table like would have been used at the Passover.  The four goblets of wine, the bitter herbs, the lamb, the unleavened bread, the sweet fruit mixture and the vinegar.  He also had the  “ washing” place set up and the table that was always set for Elijah,  who will return.   He spent the next hour and a half explaining the meaning of each piece as relates to the Feast of the Passover and also the meaning of each piece as it relates to us in our lives.  To say we were all captivated,  humbled and blessed for our participation in the evening would be an understatement. 

This coming week we are again so busy.  Two days at the Temple with the other half of the Mission and then again on Saturday with our dear Theresa.  We are trying very hard to get two trips to the Temple in before we leave.

Then, we have to start preparing things here for our return home.  Since we are not being replaced, we have to close up our little house and there are so many people that we want to see and say good bye to.  Those final two weeks will be so very busy and very hard to say good bye. 

We won’t think about that today.  Just know that we are happy and blessed to be here serving.  We are so grateful to each of you for your love and support.  The Theme for our mission is “STEADFAST IN CHRIST”.        Please remember that phrase and try to live by it each day.  Love Grandma and Grandpa

Raindrops falling all around

March 15, 2015

Today is a beautiful day in Camden, Alabama: Warm Temperature, sunshine, blue sky, green trees and daffodils poking up out of the grass.  Makes you so glad to be alive.  We had our Montgomery Stake Conference today and it was so very good:  Uplifting, hopeful, goal setting and glimpses of Eternal Life.

JP our only Priest was asked to speak.  He is a senior and will be 18 on May 17^th.  He is waiting for his Mission call to come.

For those of you who do not know JP, he is the only Member of the Church in his grade.  He is also the Student Body President. 

Since it is a private Christian school, he starts everyday leading the school in their devotional.  All the kids really look up to him.

When the school had the program where all the seniors announced their plans for after graduation, there was a hush that fell over the crowd when it was announced that he would serve a 2 year mission for “The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints”.  He says he has had so many opportunities to explain what a mission is and why he wants to serve.  He is a great example to the school and the community.  His call should get here this week. (we all hope)

The country as a whole has had very diverse weather and Alabama is not different.  No snow or ice here in Camden, but rain!!  I can’t explain to you about the rain.  Not Oregon Rain. Not Utah Rain.  But Noah’s Ark Rain.  Most of the homes here in Camden have tin roofs.  You don’t know the sound of rain until it pours like that and lands on a tin roof.  Almost like thunder.  We didn’t get thunder and lightening with this band of storms, but I think the Gulf Of Mexico sent us more than our share. 

It is pretty certain, that we are not getting a Senior Couple to replace us.  We are sadden by this news. as we know first hand how much Senior’s can add in support and leadership to a small branch.  The Branch is taking the news pretty well.  We hope that we have left an example of Service and Love for the Lord that will help them carry on in supporting the Branch and each other.

Thank heaven for cell phones, we may be “on call”  for a while.

The next two weeks will be very busy with Temple Attendance for all the Elders and Sisters in our mission. Then before we know it, it will be Conference and then we pack up. 

Again, we thank you for your love and support as we have served here.  We love the people in our Branch and in our little town.

We have made many wonderful friendships and made wonderful memories.  Keep us in your prayers,.....you will be in ours.  

Love Grandma and Grandpa

Edmund Pettus Bridge

This weekend was the 50^th Anniversary of the Martin Luther King March from Selma to Montgomery.  The issue at this time was the Right to Vote.  The Blacks had the right to vote, but here in the South, they were kept from registering to vote by Militant Police and other leaders by making unusual requirements such as being able to answer questions like “How many bubbles in a bar of Soap”  or making them stand in line outside the Registration place, only letting whites go in and then telling them the office was closed and they would have to come back another day.  The black people were prohibited from having any public meetings, so they met within their churches.  Browns Chapel in Selma was where the March originated.  The first March ended at the east end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge when the State Trooper where waiting for them to drive them back across the bridge.  That day is called, “Bloody Sunday”.  President Lyndon Johnson stepped in a prepared the way for the march to take place.  Only 300 people were allowed to cross the bridge and march to Montgomery, about 45 miles.  It took several days and they were fed by the people as they passed by their houses.  When they arrived in Montgomery, the march quickly became ten thousand marchers. Changes were made

Our District Leader asked that all 10 of the missionaries in our District meet in Selma at the parade route and give out pass -along cards and Books of Mormon.   We heard that they expected 10,000 people to come into Selma.  The number was much greater.  President Obama and President Bush and their families came to town. They were in the parade, but the safety precautions they have to take now days, we could only see the big black SUV’s that looked so formidable.  You could not see in the windows and they did not drive slowly...like in a parade.   We left after the parade and had our District meeting and then we thought we would try to see the Presidents.  NO WAY!  There were cars parked everywhere you could think to park a car.  People walking and walking.  We later learned that President Obama spoke at the base of the bridge on the west side of the Alabama River.  About 2:30 the dignitaries started their march across the bridge.  President Obama, his wife and two daughters, President Bush and his wife and many other government officials made the march. 

Today, Sunday, the official reenactment of the Bridge Crossing took place.  The people were lined up from onside of the street to the other...shoulder to shoulder; standing in line more than a block long.  It was estimated that there were 50,000 people making the crossing.    Because we were just young adults (22 years old) when this all took place, it was a special opportunity to be here at this anniversary. 

We just wanted to share this experience with y’all.  We are so grateful to live in the part of the world we live in and to have grown up with such freedom and to have been taught that we are all God’s children and to treat them as such.  We love each of you and pray for you happiness and obedience.  Love Grandma and Grandpa